Curtis_O_Baer_2010

26. Master of the Blue Paper Drawings French, 18 th century

Study of Clouds verso: Antique Ruins

Bistre, wash, white heightening; verso: pen and brown ink 3 1 ⁄ 4 x 7 7 ⁄ 8 inches ( 9 . 5 x 20 cm)

provenance Sir Thomas Lawrence (Lugt: 2445 ); acquired by S. Woodburn; W. Esdaile in 1836 (Lugt: 2617 ); sold Christie’s, London, June 1840 (not identified in the catalogue); W. Benoni White (Lugt: 2597 ); Collection Curtis O. Baer exhibitions London, Royal Academy of Art, Drawings by Old Masters, 1953 , no. 380 (as Claude Lorrain); Cambridge, 1958 , cat. no. 36 (as Claude Lorrain), recto illus.; Atlanta, 1985 , cat. no. 56 , p. 102 , recto illus. (as Master of the Blue paper Drawings) literature Kurt Badt, Wolkenbilder der Romantik , Berlin, 1960 , pl. 2 ; Marcel Rothlisberger, “Drawings Around Claude, Part One: A Group of Sixty Grimaldesque Drawings” Master Drawings , vol 3 , no. 4 , 1965 , p. 380 (cat. no. 62 ); Eckhart Knab, “Observations about Claude,” Master Drawings , vol. 9 , no. 4 , 1971 , pp. 368 – 369 , fig. 2 ; Atlanta, 1985 , p. 102 This compelling drawing is one of a group of approximately sixty drawings on blue paper, most of which were previously thought to be by Claude Lorrain (though as far back as the 18 th century and even earlier, seven of the works were attributed to Gaspard Dughet). In 1968 , Marcel Roethlisberger reattributed the drawings in their entirety to an unnamed but singular French artist working in Rome, ca. 1650 , in the circle of Grimaldi. In 1971 , Knab rejected Roethlisberger’s argument, stating that the blue paper works were by various artists, including Dughet and Claude. In a published catalogue of 1984 , the Louvre adopted the “blue paper” attribution for their four sheets from the group (though these are still classed under Claude Gellée in the Base Joconde database).

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